The present invention relates to an electronic music apparatus and tone control method which control a tone color effect parameter, associated in advance with a control operating member, in response to operation of the control operating member. Particularly, the present invention relates to a technique which not only presents a screen allowing a user to intuitively control a tone color effect parameter while visually enjoying the tone color effect parameter control but also allows the user to easily associate a control operating member with a tone color effect parameter by use of the screen. The present invention relates also to a technique which allows the user to use the screen to freely and easily set a style of variation of tone color effect parameter control (i.e., style of control of the tone color effect parameter) responsive to operation of a control operating member capable of controlling a degree of effectiveness of the tone color effect parameter.
Among the conventionally-known electronic music apparatus, such as electronic musical instruments, are ones in which various tone-controlling tone color effect parameters, such as volume, pitch and LFO parameters, are associated in advance with a plurality of control operating members, such as modulation wheels and sliders, and in which, in response to operation of any one of the control operating members, control is performed on the parameter associated with the operated control operating member (more specifically, a control value of the parameter is determined). One example of such conventionally-known electronic music apparatus is disclosed in “MOTIF XS6/XS7/XS8 Owner's Manual”, 2007, Yamaha Corporation, which was available from the Internet (http://www2.yamaha.co.jp/manual/pdf/emi/japan/synth/motifxs_ja_om_c0.pdf), and which will hereinafter be referred to as “the non-patent literature”.
In the conventionally-known electronic music apparatus, such as the one disclosed in the non-patent literature, a parameter group called a controller set is included in tone color data prepared in advance on a per-tone-color basis. The parameter group is intended to associate control operating members, such as modulation wheels, with tone effect parameters that are objects of control by the control operating members, and set degrees of effectiveness of the tone effect parameters indicative of how much the parameters are to be controlled in response to operation of the corresponding control operating members, namely, so-called “depths” defining relationship between operation amounts of the control operating members and controlled amounts of the parameters. A plurality of controller sets defining relationship between the control operating members and the parameters, depths, etc. are stored so that a user can select any desired one of the controller sets. The terms “tone colors” are used herein to mean not only ordinary tone colors, such as piano and guitar tone colors, but also individual elements of tone colors so-called “tone color elements” for use when a “tone color” is to be composed of two or more tone color elements and tone color groups so-called “performances” each comprising a plurality of tone color elements or tone colors.
The conventionally-known electronic music apparatus, such as the one disclosed in the non-patent literature, are constructed in such a manner that, once a tone color effect parameter is associated with a control operating member in accordance with the above-mentioned controller set, a control value of the tone color effect parameter associated in advance with the control operating member is presented on a display. However, the conventionally-known electronic music apparatus only display the control value of the tone color effect parameter directly in a numerical value, meter indication or the like, so that a user of the electronic music apparatus can never perform tone color effect parameter control while visually enjoying the control. Further, because the conventionally-known electronic music apparatus can only display the control value in a mere numerical value, meter indication or the like, the user can not intuitively grasp, from the displayed control value, a degree of effectiveness of the parameter responsive to operation of the corresponding control operating member. Furthermore, the conventionally-known electronic music apparatus generally can not control a plurality of tone color effect parameters simultaneously or while sequentially changing between the tone color effect parameters in response to successive operation of a given control operating member; or, if they can at all, it is necessary for the user to perform in advance extremely complicated setting operation on the control operating member for that purpose, and such setting operation tends to be very difficult and cumbersome particularly for a beginner user.
Further, the conventionally-known electronic music apparatus are constructed in such a manner that, in response to a tone color effect parameter being associated with a control operating member in accordance with the above-mentioned controller set, a style of variation the control of the tone color effect parameter responsive to operation of the control operating member is set on the basis of a depth defined in the controller set. Such a style of variation of the tone color effect parameter control responsive to operation of the control operating member (also referred to as “style of control of the tone color effect parameter”) determines a so-called degree of effectiveness of the parameter, i.e. how much the parameter can be controlled by how much operation amount of the control operating member; the style of control also includes increasing/decreasing of a control value of the parameter. Difference in the style of variation of the parameter control leads to a difference in an operational feeling which the user has during operation of the control operating member. However, the conventionally-known electronic music apparatus would present the problem that the user can not perform parameter control with a high freedom because the apparatus can set the style of variation only such that the controlled amount increases (or decreases) unidirectionally and monotonously in response to the operation amount of the control operating member, for example, as the control operating member is sequentially operated from a minimum (zero) operation amount to a maximum operation amount. Further, because the conventionally-known electronic music apparatus can only display a control value of a tone color effect parameter directly in a mere numerical value, meter indication or the like in response to operation of the corresponding control operating member as noted above, the user can not perform control of the tone color effect parameter while visually enjoying the control and can not intuitively grasp a degree of effectiveness of the parameter from the displayed content.